Genaco Compound.
7:45 a.m. Monday, 13th April 2043.
Suzuki exited the Virtual Drive and walked into the bathroom to relieve himself. A few minutes later, he stepped out of the bathroom and began his daily workout routine. It was a strenuous, high-intensity regimen that consisted of several push-ups, chin-ups, sit-ups, stretches, and other aerobics. On some days, he mixed it up with pull-ups and other forms of exercise. Usually, the exercise routine would last for fifteen to twenty minutes, but Suzuki extended this session to a whole hour to make up for the time spent laying down. By the time he was done, he was sweating like a Thanksgiving turkey.
Suzuki exhaled as he examined his sore muscles. He was by no means the toughest guy in the world, but he had an excellent physique comprised of powerful, well-toned muscles without any useless fat, a lithe frame that allowed high agility if he needed to run, and rock-hard abs that protected his abdomen. The young man sighed as he recalled the countless amount of work that had gone into crafting this body.
At the age of ten, Suzuki's father enrolled him in a junior martial arts school to 'toughen him up.' In reality, they both knew that the real reason Suzuki was enrolled in that school was to give him an out for the aggressive emotions built up in his heart due to his abusive mother.
Suzuki's father, due to the nature of his work, was rarely ever home, and for reasons the child never understood, his mother blamed him for his father's loss of interest in her. Suzuki's father's intentions worked, as the thrill and chaos of a martial arts match often took his mind off the abuse that awaited him at home. Suzuki also found that when he pushed his body to the limit during training, he was too exhausted to harbor any negative emotions. As a result, he often remained in the dojo long past the allotted time.
Suzuki's hard work paid off, and two years later, he qualified for the finals of the junior MMA championship. Unfortunately, Suzuki's family suffered an accident on the way to the finals that claimed his parents' lives. Naturally, the injuries he sustained from the resulting fire disqualified him from the competition.
Worse yet, Suzuki's brain was damaged by the incident, resulting in the loss of almost all his emotions, leaving only rage and anger behind. As a result, he often got into fights with other children at the orphanage he was temporarily placed in by the government. Suzuki was only able to relatively calm down when he resumed his training, and at this point, it had turned into something therapeutic. The pain he endured during training served to cover the anger and rage in his heart.
Suzuki's improved temperament awarded him with a new home and parents. Unfortunately, his new family was no better than his birth parents. If anything, they were much more abusive. Suzuki almost acted on his rage multiple times but managed to keep his emotions in check through diligent training. He eventually joined a kendo club in middle school.
Suzuki was naturally gifted in combat and often picked up skills much faster than his peers and seniors. It therefore came as no surprise to him when he surpassed both his classmates and seniors in training after only a couple of months. Unfortunately, the seniors were not as open-minded as those in manga.
Jealousy clouded their thoughts, and they began taking any opportunity they had to pick on and bully Suzuki. No matter how much Suzuki trained, the rage in him still remained. One day, he could no longer bear the bullying and lashed out in anger. His world turned red, and by the time he returned to his senses, the dojo floor was littered with the unconscious, severely beaten bodies of his seniors and their friends who had tried to stop the fight.
Suffice to say, Suzuki was kicked out of the kendo club. He might have even spent time in juvie if it wasn't for the fact that the seniors were afraid that the truth about the bullying would come up in the news. Suzuki realized simple training would not be enough to fix his anger issues. At the behest of a psychiatrist, Suzuki's foster parents reluctantly allowed the child to spend more time in the game, King's Journey.
Suzuki, or rather his alter-ego Razznik, began a strict training regimen in the game. Both Razznik and Suzuki lost themselves in the new things they learned in the game world. Suzuki practiced the skills Razznik learned from Zytra in the real world and applied them in street fights to hone his skills. Razznik, in the meantime, sought out powerful opponents to train him and sharpen his skills in combat.
Of all the skills in Zytra, the hardest for Razznik to manually train was the Archery skill, because it was the skill with the most assistance from the game system. Worse yet, the archery dojos lacked the same level of ground-up training methods other classes had. This was most likely because most people who chose Archery did not have any actual interest in Archery itself and just wanted an easy method to attack from afar.
To remedy this, Suzuki joined the archery club in high school. As fate would have it, this was where Suzuki first encountered the girl who would later lead the army against Razznik: Adachi Ayumi, a.k.a. Aileera.
The mere thought of the 'Archery Princess' jolted Suzuki out of his reverie. Suzuki shook his head as he recalled the young woman's pride-filled gaze. Ah, he did not want to think about her right now, but he also could not help but wonder if she missed him or not.
Suzuki sighed and walked into the bathroom. He filled the bathtub with water, poured the bubble bath solution, stripped, and then relaxed in the spa-like warm water and rejuvenating foam. This was a luxury he could have had only once in several months (if he was lucky) back at home.
A while later, Suzuki emerged from the bathroom and picked out a white t-shirt and black jeans from the closet. He picked up his Genaco-issued phone from the dresser beside the bed and slipped it into his pocket. Suzuki made a mental note to find out if it was possible to download music onto the device and to buy some headphones.
Suzuki confirmed the date on the phone as the 13th of April, a week after the day he had been kidnapped, and realized he had really spent an entire week indoors without any human contact. Now that he thought about it, Kashi spent three in-game weeks without speaking to a single Summoned.
'People like me are the reason online gamers are ostracized.'
Suzuki shook his head, slipped into a pair of casual slippers by the door and left the room. The hallway was empty, and Suzuki guessed the residents were probably tied up in-game. The opening weeks of any Massive Multiplayer Online (MMO) game were tremendously important as players sought to assert dominance with their guilds.
As a primarily single-player kind of person, Suzuki did not care about the early rush. The young man had decided to take a break from gaming, consequences be damned. He took the elevator to the ground floor and stepped out into the warm April sun. He took in a deep breath, then proceeded to take a stroll in no particular direction.
After an hour of aimlessly wandering about the facility, Suzuki came to a conclusion: he needed an alternate means of transport — like a bicycle or something. The facility grounds were just too large, and he would have gotten lost several times were it not for the phone.
"Hey tough guy!" a familiar voice interrupted Suzuki's thoughts.
'She better not be talking to me.' Suzuki looked over his shoulder and recognized the girl who had introduced herself as 'Jade Yuhi' riding up to him on the very thing he had just been thinking about. It was like she was created just to aggravate him.
"It is good to see you again, Yuhi-san," Suzuki greeted politely when she stopped next to him. Jade was quite short, just about reaching his chest.
In reply, Jade made a face like she had eaten a bad oyster. "Blergh. No formal speech, please. Just call me Jade."
"Is that so? Then I won't hold back... Jade." Suzuki somehow made her name sound like it was being dragged across a concrete floor and then crushed in a grinder.
"Still as unfriendly as ever... eh... what was it again?" Jade asked, cocking her head to the side with a blank expression.
"So you're the forgetful type?" challenged Suzuki, exasperated by her attitude.
"Ah, sorry. I only remember important names so—"
A vein popped on the young man's forehead, but he managed to hold in his irritation. "Sorry for being unimportant!"
"Ah, my bad. Sorry," Jade apologized. She actually looked embarrassed by the whole fiasco.
Suzuki suddenly felt uncomfortable and mumbled out of the corner of his mouth, "...Suzuki."
"Um... I didn't get that."
"Su-Zu-Ki!" Suzuki yelled into her ear.
"Haha. Nice to meet you Suzuki-kun," Jade laughed and greeted, holding out her hand.
"It's embarrassing if you use honorifics now. Suzuki is fine," Suzuki said as he shook her hand.
Jade chuckled as she dismounted from her bike. "So, what brings you here, Suzuki?"
"Just taking a walk. Been a while since I was top-side."
"Mind if I join you?"
"Not really. It's fine."
The pair walked side by side in silence, the sole sound between them the slight squeaking of the bicycle's tires. Suzuki took the time to study the girl. If one word were to be used to describe Jade, it would surely be 'goth.' Her pale, porcelain-white skin contrasted sharply against a pair of ripped black jeans and a leather jacket. Dark, smoky makeup on her eyebrows and lips made her beautiful dark gray eyes pop. Finally, a pair of star-shaped earrings peeked out from behind a thick glossy curtain of night-black hair that reached down to her lower back.
"Like what you see?" Jade teased.
"Don't know. You tell me." Suzuki looked into her eyes. "Should I?"
"Huh?" Jade was stunned into silence but then broke out in laughter the very next second. It seemed she had not had a good laugh in a while and had to balance on the handlebars of her bike to keep herself from falling.
By her side, Suzuki let out a sigh of relief. Indeed, when in doubt, rely on anime. That line had come straight out of an anime he had watched recently. It was a good thing the response seemed appropriate. After all, he did not have too much experience dealing with people in general.
"Mmm... That felt good." Jade stretched her arms wide, a lazy smile on her face. "This place has been too weird."
Suzuki's brows rose. "Were you abducted too?"
"Abducted? What are you talking about?" Jade questioned. "According to my pops, my grandfather works here, so I came to look for him." She seemed to be hiding something, but even he knew better than to press the issue. "Wait. You said 'too'? You... were you abducted?"
"Yeah... On the first day of school, no less," Suzuki revealed. He related the entire experience to her. "At least I got to flip one guy over before they got me with the taser."
"Pfft." Jade had to cover her mouth to smother the laughter that bubbled up her throat.
"What's so funny?" Suzuki questioned and closed in on her until the only thing separating them was the bicycle.
"Nothing. I swear it's not— pfft!"
Suzuki's left eyebrow rose. "Suspicious." Luckily for Jade, the young man's stomach chose that moment to let out a cry of protest. It had been fed bare nutrients and wanted real food to eat.
"You seem hungry." Glad for the change in topic, Jude quickly backed away. "Where do you want to eat?"
"Eh... I don't know anywhere good. What do you recommend?" Suzuki scratched the back of his head, bracing for the inevitable question.
Jade suddenly felt something was off. "Wait. Just how long have you been in your room?"
"...A week?"
"!"
Half an hour later, Jade was bent over in laughter at a restaurant she recommended. It was a buffet-style eatery, and the teenager seemed intent of taking full advantage of that. She was on her third plate, causing Suzuki, who looked at her small frame, to wonder where all the food went.
Suzuki spent the last thirty minutes narrating his story to her, finding it relaxing to talk to someone as open and free-spirited as she was. He purposely left out some important details, like his avatars' name, the name of the town Kashi started in, and the skills he had. In L.N.E. every Summoned was an enemy until proven otherwise. It would do Kashi no good to divulge too much information. Jade's particular source of humor stemmed from the story of how Kashi 'sweet-talked' the storekeeper into giving him bread.
"Seriously. You were so excited to get free bread?" Jade asked in between laughs.
"Oh, come on. It's not that funny. It was an important test. What did you expect him to do?"
"Sorry, my bad. It's just the way you speak in the game is so funny."
"It's not 'me.' Its Kashi," Suzuki corrected. He realized his blunder a moment later, but it was too late to take back what was already said.
"Kashi, huh?" she murmured. "Cool name. So, what's with the 'It's not me, it's Kashi'?"
"As a rule, I consider my avatars as separate entities from me. I would appreciate if you did the same." Suzuki gazed downwards at his plate, playing with his noodles.
Suzuki's tone might have been light, but Jade could sense a heavy undercurrent just below the surface. This was a really big deal to him, and she made a mental note not to refer to Kashi as him again.
"So, what about you?" asked Suzuki. "What's your avatar's story?"
Jade grinned Cheshire style. "That's a se-c-ret." She poked his head and chuckled at his expression. "Pass me your phone." Stunned by the fact he had been one-upped by her, Suzuki obediently handed her the device. She placed hers next to his, pressed a button on hers, and then handed his back to him.
A message asking to confirm adding her as a contact popped up on the screen and Suzuki readily accepted. Jade was now the third person in his life aside from his parents to ever have their number in his phone. The first was Shouyou James, who had also given him his first cellphone after his parents' deaths, and the second was the Archery Princess.
It's always little things, huh...
Suzuki was somewhat shocked at his hasty acceptance; it almost seemed like he had been desperate for attention. No, that was not possible. After all, he had mastered the art of isolation. There was no reason for him to be relieved that he had someone to talk to. Then again, it might just have been a quality she possessed. One he could not ignore.
The pair finished their meal and spent the afternoon chatting non-stop through the entire day. During that time, Jade taught Suzuki how to check his balance. It turned out he had approximately 140,000 yen left in his account. Jade then led him to a bicycle shop where he bought a decent one for 20,000 yen, leaving him with 120,000. He also bought a pair of high-end headphones for 10,000 yen. By the end of the day, he was left with 110,000 yen. Suzuki did not regret the purchases in any way.
Priorities were important in life.
Jade also taught him how to download free music into his phone. As expected of a company leading the entertainment sector, they had already paid for all possible downloads. Hence there was nothing illegal about them downloading songs from the hub.
Once again, Suzuki was shocked and impressed by just how much money must have been spent on the project. There was no way a company like Genaco would sink this many resources into something pro-bono like finding a cure for Parallel. Harsh as it may seem, that would just be 'bad business,' as his birth father had often said.
The duo toured the grounds together and shared a meal when the sun began to set. After dinner, they said their goodbyes and parted ways. As Suzuki opened the door to his building, the sun set on the horizon, bidding him goodnight.
Meanwhile, in a control room filled with computer screens and multiple analysts crunching and analyzing various numbers, Akari glanced at Yukino and asked, "How's it going so far?"
"Only ten people refused to start the game," Yukino reported as she observed the programmers and analysts scurry around like worker ants on an overdose of energy drinks.
"And?"
"They were dealt with as you instructed."
"Good," Akari coldly replied. "And those who stayed?"
"A few have begun to show early symptoms of Parallel, though it's too early to say for sure. It may just be an initial backlash from the game."
"Anything else?"
"There was a report of a child spending the entire week indoors. He only came out today."
"Name?" Akari asked, interest genuinely piqued.
"Mato Suzuki."
"The child from the opening day, huh? His level?"
"Seven. We assume he spent most of the time exploring the world."
Although highly illegal, Genaco could follow the players' progress in the virtual world to a certain degree, but a user's brain unconsciously protected itself from outside interference, which was why the company could only pull bits of information at a time while the player was still in-game. However, immediately after the user logged out, they could draw the data from the save file. The longer a user spent in the world, the longer it took to download the information.
By staying in the game world for so long with only very short breaks in between, Suzuki had unknowingly prevented them from gleaming too much information. And since he had already logged back into the game, the most the company could obtain was data leading up to his escape and his current level. The rest were still nicely tucked away in the save file.
But Suzuki did not know any of this...